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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

a new (part-time) job!

For the past few months I've been doing some part time work at the school where I previously taught. Mainly I work with kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders. This is the perfect area for me since all of my teaching experience is with primary learners. So what have I been up to? A little bit of everything. Guided reading, guided writing, math facts, a few assessments here and there, and reteaching various skills as students need extra support. Even though my badge says "tutor," I prefer to think of myself as an "interventionist!"

During the fall, the days that I worked were so sporadic that I didn't even mention it. However, now that Jax has passed the 6 month mark, he's able to go to school with his big brothers! So he's in school for a couple of days each week, and he seems to really love it. The first day he slept for a grand total of 40 minutes (in a five hour time span)! Here's a little craft that he made today. They were learning about exercising and eating healthy!

Back to the "interventionist" position. . .I am so glad that I have the opportunity to help teachers and students in such a low-stress way. It was around this time last year that I started seriously considering taking time off from teaching full time. By spring break, I was just about 100% certain that I wanted to stay home this year. With three "littles" of my own, I knew that I wouldn't be able to teach full time (with a high level of quality and excellence), spend quality time with Mr. Perry (poor guy-he was usually the one to be left out on those long, hard work days), spend time blogging (and blog-stalking), participate and serve in church activities, hang out with my boys, and have time for myself. Having three little boys who are so close together has been a blessing, but it's also incredibly exhausting!

Teachers have such a huge amount of responsibilities on their plate. I don't think many people realize how incredibly hard teachers work (unless they live or have lived with a teacher), and I'm not just talking about from August-May as a 7:30-3:30 job. Between lesson plans, grading papers, parent conferences/communication with parents, appraisals, morning/afternoon duty, recess duty, lunch duty, faculty meetings, professional development, discipline, assessments, team meetings, deadlines, technology malfunctions, copy machine issues, among so many additional things.

Tomorrow is Mr. Perry's birthday, and we've been celebrating for a couple of days now! Here's a candy/tool gram from the boys! It has lots of candy and several of "manly" house items that he can use.

We also made this little adorable little card.

I am working on a few more things that are turning out pretty cute so far. Tonight we're heading to the Cheesecake factory so I'm pretty excited about that!

One more thing. . .Last week the boys' classes were each assigned a fairy tale. Sol's class had "Jack and the Beanstalk," and Christian's class had King Midas.

He was SO happy about taking jelly beans to school!

Christian LOVES school, and he adores his teachers SO much! I hope and pray that this excitement continues for as long as possible!

6 comments:

Oh my word...I just started following your blog! It is so stinkin' cute! I love it! You have an adorable family...I have only made it through your last three posts...but I think your blog will be one that I check daily! What a great mama you must be!

Brooke, no teacher in his/her right mind would think of you as "just a tutor"! Your school is incredibly fortunate to have you doing intervention with those little ones. I so wish more schools would focus their intervention efforts on the primary grades instead of waiting until the testing years to try to close knowledge gaps.

Thanks Rachel! You are always so sweet and encouraging! I would love to stop by your class one day to meet your kiddos! Even though I get to do a lot of small group intervention, I am dying to do a read aloud (for a whole class) or a whole group project (I know it sounds crazy)!

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About Me

Hi! My name is Brooke Perry. Welcome to Perspectives! I am currently a reading specialist in Texas. This is my 10th year in education. I love reading, watching students develop a lifelong love for reading, and assisting teachers with reading projects in their classroom!

I am married to Mr. Incredible, a software engineer, and I have 3 handsome, energetic little boys! My undergrad degree is from The University of Texas at Austin in Child Development & Family Relations. Hookem'! I also have a master's degree in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on literacy and language development.

I love shopping, baking, reading, event planning, turning trash into treasure, and finding great deals! Perspectives began as "Primary Perspectives" and was created in fall of 2010. Over time it has transformed into an informational and educational blog with resources for parents, teachers, and families. I love comments and questions. Welcome to Perspectives, and thanks for stopping by!